-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- For years , Republican presidents and presidential candidates have strip-mined Clint Eastwood movies for rhetorical nuggets . Ronald Reagan warned Congress in 1985 that he had his veto pen at the ready if it voted a tax increase . `` Go ahead , make my day , '' he baited , quoting Eastwood 's Dirty Harry character in `` Sudden Impact . '' `` Read my lips , '' promised candidate George H.W. Bush in 1988 , echoing Eastwood in the original `` Dirty Harry , '' adding , `` No new taxes . ''

Thursday night , Mitt Romney 's campaign recruited Eastwood himself . The beloved actor/director , 82 , was the `` mystery guest '' at the Republican Convention , a warm-up act for Sen. Mario Rubio of Florida , who introduced candidate Romney . He strode out on the stage , hair uncombed and a little wild , with his familiar , stiff-legged authority , and proceeded to deliver an improvised piece of performance art that triggered unintentional amusement and confusion within the Tampa Bay Times Forum and throughout the viewing audience .

But to many , the political nuggets Eastwood delivered this time were more like fool 's gold . `` I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be president anyhow , '' Eastwood rambled , perhaps unaware that Romney has a law degree , `` because they 're arguing both sides of the issue . ''

News : Eastwood , the empty chair , and the speech everyone 's talking about

`` Clint Eastwood became huge star as a man of few words . As a surprise guest on the Tampa stage he had too many words -LRB- I say as a friend -RRB- , '' tweeted newsman Tom Brokaw of the actor 's apparently improvised act , where he addressed an empty chair meant to represent President Barack Obama .

Afterward , the Chicago Sun-Times critic and Obama supporter Roger Ebert tweeted , `` Clint , my hero , is coming across as sad and pathetic . He did n't need to do this to himself . It 's unworthy of him . ''

For this film critic and longtime admirer of Eastwood -LRB- and a registered Democrat -RRB- , it was not the best hour for the former mayor of Carmel , California .

But was I surprised that Eastwood , a man who describes himself as an `` Eisenhower Republican '' and who publicly endorsed John McCain in 2008 , would appear at the Republican convention ? Not at all . Eastwood is nothing if not a straight shooter .

What did surprise me , a little , is that the GOP would invite Eastwood after prominent Republicans such as Karl Rove criticized the actor as an Obama tool for narrating Chrysler 's `` Halftime in America '' ad aired at the Super Bowl this year . What also surprised me is that the GOP would invite the guy who told GQ magazine in October , `` These people who are making a big deal about gay marriage ? I do n't give a -- about who wants to get married to anybody else . Why not ? ''

And it was surprising that , when the identity of the `` mystery guest '' was revealed Thursday evening , many non-Republicans took to Twitter and Facebook to pillory Eastwood , huffing that his appearance at the GOP convention `` tainted '' his movies for them . Huh ? First of all , Eastwood publicly endorsed Romney this month . Second of all , the actor who is a lower-case-L libertarian on social issues -LRB- pro-gay marriage , pro choice , pro-ecology -RRB- and a fiscal conservative is hardly one to toe a party line .

Have they watched Eastwood 's movies ? You ca n't pin this guy down ideologically . Many have tried . All have failed . As critic Dave Kehr has noted , `` Ambivalence runs deep in his movies , just as it runs through American culture . '' Eastwood specializes in playing men in the moral shadowlands . During the Nixon years liberals branded Eastwood movies like `` Dirty Harry '' as `` fascist . '' During the Clinton years , conservatives tagged `` Unforgiven '' as squishy `` political correctness . '' Heaven knows what they made of -- SPOILER ALERT ! -- the assisted suicide in his other Oscar-winning movie , `` Million Dollar Baby . ''

Entertainment : Stars react to Clint Eastwood

The first half of Eastwood 's career he played men who shot first and thought about it later . The second half of his career , he 's largely devoted himself to exploring the consequences of that gunplay . Is that Republican ? Is that Democrat ?

I think it 's American .

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Carrie Rickey .

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Carrie Rickey : Clint Eastwood lines have long been used by politicians , mainly from right

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She says last night at GOP convention , he made rambling , performance-art-type speech

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She says left-leaners groused , but Eastwood going his own way politically is not new

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Rickey : He 's small `` l '' libertarian , with films showing ambivalence about America . And that 's OK